Letter 4: The TAS performance

Tim,

As you know, we went to the American school this Thursday and watched a play performed by the students there. The show was Twelfth Night in the 80s version. They put a lot of movie scenes and songs from the 80s in to the show. Since all the classmates would be writing about the show, I’d tell you some things that happened that were not mentioned.

Remember last year when we went and saw the school’s students perform The Adams Family? There were a few of them who also took part in the performance this year. To my surprise, many of my classmates, such as Candy, Doris, and Hugo had been following those students on social networks since then. You maybe not know that Candy is a girl whose head is filled with unrealistic romantic notions. Before the show, we could all tell that she was excited to see the same student that has also acted in the play last year, and at the same time, find some more handsome faces. Right after, she was crying about not being able to see him again because he is graduating. I can’t think of how she got all these information since we aren’t familiar to those students.

Anyway, Candy and I have always wanted to perform an opera in our yearly presentation. Candy and I could be the main actresses. We’re pretty good at singing and I believe we can make good teamwork. What do you think? Is it possible?

Allison

Letter 3: And There's Still School Eyeryday

Tim,

First, I’ll answer the questions.

I choose three out from the questions.

4. Where do most of the flowers that Mr. Maher mentions grow wild? What is necessary to be sure that the flowers can thrive in the desert?

The flowers grow wild in southern Arizona and northern Mexico since there is more rain and it isn’t so hot there comparing to where Mr. Maher lives. To let the flowers survive in the desert, plenty of water and shades are necessary.

5. Why are certain colors of flowers usually planted? Why were the blue flowers planted? When are the blossoms on the blue flowers actually open?

Mr. Maher planted red and blue flowers. The blue ones were planted just because Mr. Maher likes blue flowers. They open when it isn’t so hot, which is in the early mornings.

8. What are Labrador Retrievers actually bred to do? How will a “good” Labrador show this when they play “fetch”?

They are supposed to find the birds or ducks that the hunter shot. When the dogs play fetch, they go get the ball and bring it back to its owner. It is similar to getting the prey and bringing it back to the hunter.

Now let me tell you some stuff about school. We’ve got along with the new students pretty fast, and I’m sure that they have known us better. I believe you had already read their letters, but I’m going to tell you what I know about them.

Amy is a shy girl. She doesn’t talk much, but I know she is a friendly classmate. In fact, she sits between Angela and Vivian. Those two seem to be happy sitting beside her.

Sabrina is a hardworking and calm girl. She seldom speaks and she is always reading or studying. I’m not quite sure if she really is a quite girl, though. It takes time to find out.

Jack is humorous and active. You can see that from every of his movements. His reactions are often eye-catching and funny. It seems that he is also good at acting.

Here is a video of him singing a song from an animation that all of us had seen in our childhood. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2dDlaE88uLnbHlpb1NNMjZMZzg

Patrick hates coming to school. I hear him complaining about the classes every day, especially about Chinese class since I sit next to him. He hates Chinese. Patrick is the one who often dozes off in class. But at other times, he is talkative and friendly.

Jay is a very active person. He tries to get into conversation with every teacher in class. He often comes up with bad ideas that make us laugh so hard that the teacher has to stop us from falling of the chairs.

Otto is a student who putts studying in first place. You can see him studying hard in class. Maybe that’s why he dozes off in class, too. Studying is tiring. But that makes both of the people beside me asleep.

By the way, William is always the weirdest person in our class. He is always the trouble-maker. These days, he kept on making holes on his water bottles to spray on the classmates in class. He even broke his chair when doing this. Here is a video of this naughty student. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2dDlaE88uLnQkNjYlU3eFcybFU

Allison

Letter 2: The Weekdays

Tim,

First, I’m going to answer the questions from last time. We stayed in Brazil for three weeks this time. My family and I stayed in a commercial hotel where my dad lives, which is in Sao Paulo. And of course, I enjoyed the cool winter there. It can sometimes be pretty hot, though. I do not like the humid weather, so I was happy that I missed a small part of summer. I am not sure how long my dad is going to work in Brazil. I wonder if he has ever thought about this question. But the fact is that he is a workaholic. Nothing can stop him from work.

Now, it’s time for the main point.

Since my dad has work on weekdays, Mom, Ariel (that’s my little sister), and I would stay in the hotel for most of the time. We live in a family room, which has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living room. There are no heaters in the room, so sometimes we move around with our blankets on our shoulder. It can be really freezing in the evening.

We get up early for our breakfast down stairs. The breakfast buffet stays almost the same throughout the year, so I usually have the fruits and boiled eggs. (The fruits don’t change either) Then, my dad goes to work. (I wonder why he isn’t sick of eating the same breakfast every day for years) The three of us rest for a moment and go to the small gym for some work out. We follow video clips for some burning exercise. After all the sweating, we take our baths and wash our clothes by hand since there were no washing machines in the hotel. Strange. We dry them with towels and hang them all acros the room. 

At noon, Dad comes back from work to take us to lunch. (Let me introduce some food next time) Then he takes us to a friend’s house (so that Ariel and I can practice piano) and he goes back to work. There is a cute dog there that is always excited when we visit. He is very cute and we loved practicing piano those days. When Ariel practices, I use my notebook to watch video clips of math classes in cram school. But I hate math, it is too hard. After practicing, we head back to the hotel and wait for my dad to bring us dinner.

A street paint by a Taiwanese graffiti artist.

Brazilians speak Portuguese, and my dad is very good at it now. Now he takes classes to learn Spanish after work. The classes take place on the second floor of the hotel. His Spanish teacher comes to our hotel to teach him. So sometimes, he brings back dinner but he doesn’t eat with us. He has to rush downstairs to take the classes. I wish I have time to learn those two languages, too.

This is the weekdays I spent in Brazil; on weekends, we go to other places which will soon be mentioned in letters. See you next letter!


Allison

Letter 1: Another Start

Tim,

It has been a long time since we all had our summer vacation. A new semester started, and we’re all back to school. We’re ready for new challenges and new things to learn. But for every one of us, the summer vacation is still not long enough!

In these letters, I will share to you what I did during summer vacation. It would be about the countries I went to this time, and how those countries are like. Of course, the most of them would be about Brazil since my dad works there. He’s not a Brazilian though. In fact, he’s actually in a Taiwanese company and that we get free tickets to Brazil because of that every year. Although traveling to Brazil often is a rare opportunity, I would rather want my dad to stay in Taiwan so that we can see him every day. The other countries that I go to are the ones we pass by when we transfer our flight. That’s why I get to go to so many countries once.

By the way, we have some new classmates! As you know, many of our classmates of 120 had left last semester …but there were six who passed the test and became our new classmates. I believe we would be nice friends and they would also feel proud being one of 220.

Here are some pictures of my trip. See you next letter!